KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 1,549 workplace clusters involving 133,247 Covid-19 positive cases were recorded over the past five months based on Health Ministry data.
The cases recorded between March 28 and Aug 17 this year, coinciding with the second phase of the nation's third wave of the pandemic, had surfaced partly through the 490,983 tests conducted.
The clusters that accounted for 53.2 per cent of the overall 2,913 clusters recorded within the period had caused 370 deaths.
From these clusters, 32 people are still being treated in intensive care units.
Currently, 764 clusters are still active and have been placed under outbreak monitoring schedules, while 785 of the infectious units have ended.
The states that reported the highest number of workplace clusters are Selangor with 414 clusters accounting for 26.7 per cent of the cluster tally; Johor with (322 clusters) or 20.8 per cent of the share of infectious units; and Kuala Lumpur with 149 which accounted for 9.6 per cent of the overall clusters.
The data released by the ministry in its health update today also illustrated the workplace cluster trend in that period.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the three main clusters reported in this period were divided among the manufacturing (780 clusters), service (260) and construction (181) sectors.
He said to reduce these clusters, emphasis must be given on the standard operating procedures (SOP), full coverage of vaccination among workers and strict enforcement.
Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry had updated its "Covid-19 Management Guidelines for Workplaces" to be used as a reference for industry players.
The guidelines highlight the things that employers need to do to prevent and control the spread of infection at workplaces.
Dr Noor Hisham said engagement sessions with industry players were conducted thrice on July 27, Aug 5 and yesterday involving stakeholders such as the Malaysian Employers' Federation (MEF), Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM), SME Association, SME Corp and representatives from the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti), Department of Occupational Safety and Health, Labour Department and their parent entity, the Human Resources Ministry.
Dr Noor Hisham also provided a list of dos and don'ts and SOP for the sector.
Meanwhile, 880 clusters or 30.2 per cent of overall clusters reported throughout the period were from the community.
A total of 58,776 infections had surfaced partly through the 237,281 screenings done, while 417 deaths have been recorded, with 14 cases are still being treated in the ICU.
Currently, 439 clusters are still active while 441 clusters have ended.
States that recorded the highest tallies of community clusters were Kelantan (239 clusters; or 27.2 per cent), Sarawak (171 clusters; or 19.4 per cent), and Sabah (94 clusters; or 10.7 per cent).
Dr Noor Hisham said the clusters were due the transmission of the disease from family members and closed contacts through visits among family members or outbreaks in households (481 clusters), longhouse clusters (44) and celebration or festival clusters (55).
"Epidemiological investigations have revealed that despite bans on social functions and receiving guests, there are still members of the public who continue to visit their friends and family and gather during occasions that leads to community clusters."
Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry understood the importance of the government's move to reopen more economic and social sectors in stages based on the National Recovery Plan to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods.
"At the same time, the ministry is doing their level best to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission and is focused on addressing risks related to the increasing outbreak of clusters."
"The ministry needs the cooperation and compliance of all parties to succeed in controlling the present transmission of Covid-19 infections nationwide which is still at a worrying level, as over the past seven days, the number of cases is still around an average of 20,000 daily."
The government has also allowed more businesses and economic activities to resume operations since Monday as the country moved to ease Covid-19 restrictions in the economic sector.
The government had said on Sunday that these lifting of restrictions follows early signs that the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme was bearing fruit,
This occurred around the same time when there was also a declining number of admissions of Covid-19 patients of all age groups at hospitals in the Klang Valley and in several other areas.
The data showed a decrease in the number of cases requiring hospital support in areas where more than 40 per cent of the adult population was fully vaccinated.
The government had also said the situation at emergency departments in hospitals in the Klang Valley had improved with the number of patients in emergency wards reducing from 909 on July 31 to 239 patients as of Aug 13.